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(Pages 238-240)

Konstantynów(District of Łódź)

Translated by David Freidenreich

Population

Year

TotalPopulation

JewishPopulation

1827

?

516

1857

2,917

613

1897

5,582

1091

1921

5,728

942

1 Sep 1939

~1300

Jewish Community Until 1918

The town was founded in the 1820's by a noble landowner, who planned to develop a textile industry
there. The Kingdom of Poland granted Konstantynów the status of a factory
town in 1830. In 1924 Konstantynów was classified as a city.

It is safe to assume that Jews settled in Konstantynów even before it became a factory town. With
the influx into Konstantynów of weavers and other textile experts from
within and outside Poland, there was also an influx of Jews. The legal
status of the Jews of Konstantynów was defined by a government decree in
1830, one of whose clauses stated, "In order to prevent the damaging concentration
of Jews in Konstantynów, it is established that the municipal office will
accept as residents of the city only those who present residency permits
signed by the mayor." This situation remained in force until 1862, when
an order of the Czar canceled all restrictions on the mobility of Jews
in the Kingdom of Poland. For this reason the Jewish population in Konstantynów
increased very slowly until 1862. Even after this, the increase was slow,
for which there are several reasons. The main reason was that the weaver's
guild did not permit Jews to work in the textile industry. Jews also did
not want to work in the factories, because of their reluctance to work
on Shabbat. Another reason was the regular and significant migration of
Jews into Łódź, the nearby city which was growing and developing. The influence
of this situation on the occupational structure of the Jewish population
in Konstantynów was dramatic: the vast majority were small salesmen or
involved in other traditional Jewish trades. Among the 100 people who paid
the communal tax in 1864 were 52 small businessmen, 2 landlords, 18 tailors,
2 furriers, 2 hatmakers, 3 shoemakers, 3 tanners, 1 ribbon weaver, 2 butchers,
3 wagon drivers, 1 barber, 12 day-laborers  and only 1 weaver. Aside from
these occupational groups, there were also groups which were exempt from
paying the communal tax: the employees of the community and its officers,
the religious officials, and the indigent who did not have any fixed source
of income. In the middle of the nineteenth century, however, Jews slowly
began to enter the textile industry. In the years before World War I, tens
of Jews already worked in this area. Most of them worked out of their homes,
receiving raw materials from the Jewish factory manager in Łódź and returning
to him the finished product.

Already in 1825 an independent Jewish community existed in Konstantynów,
operating a synagogue, a house of study, bath-houses, a poorhouse, and
a cemetery which remains consecrated to this day, and it employed a dayan
[dayan]. The government was reluctant to recognize the independence
of the community, on the grounds that these institutions were housed in
rented buildings and not in their own edifices. The efforts of the community,
with the support of the mayor, bore fruit, and in 1835 the local Dayan
was authorized to function as the rabbi of the independent community. (The
first elections for communal leadership took place in 1832.) The first
dayan in Konstantynów was Rabbi Pinchas Freidenreich. In addition,
Rabbi Yehezkel Naumberg, formerly the dayyan of Lutomiersk, functioned
as dayyan from 1823-1832 (apparently without salary). In 1832 Rabbi
Yehezkel Naumberg was called to serve as the rabbi of Łódź. In 1835, Rabbi
Pinchas Freidenreich was elevated to the rank of rabbi of Konstantynów.
In 1852 the local government opened an investigation on the allegations
that he imposed a herem on Jewish workers, especially women, working
in Christian factories. Rabbi Pinchas asserted that he did not impose any
herem, but rather warned female workers in his sermons about the
dangers of moral corruption, in particular after he was informed that two
Jewish female workers were about to convert to Christianity. The government
instructed the rabbi to publicly disavow the herem. The end of this
affair is not known. It is probable that the cause of the affair was a
dispute within the community between the rabbi and members of the community's
leadership. From 1885-1890 Rabbi Shmuel, son of Moshe Weiss, a descendant
of Rabbi Heschel of Lublin, served as rabbi of Konstantynów. Rabbi Shmuel
Weiss wrote a work of responsa literature called Minhat Shmuel (on
the fourth part of the Shulkhan Arukh), and also Divrei Shmuel
(insights into the Talmud). When Rabbi Shmuel moved to Węgrów (1890), Rabbi
Menahem David Greenbaum, the former rabbi of Nowy Dwor, served as the rabbi
of Konstantynów. Rabbi Menahem also led in Konstantynów a circle of Admorim,
who followed the Radoszyce-Sobota stream. After his death (only a few years
before World War I), Rabbi Yaakov Aron Levi became the rabbi of Konstantynów.
He died during the war.

Until the end of World War I, a traditional Jewish lifestyle dominated
Konstantynów. The leading figures were the hasidim, particularly
Radoszyce-Sobota hasidim, but also hasidim of Gur, Alexander,
Sochaczew, each having their own shtiebl. During the years of the
aforementioned Rabbi Yaakov Aron Levi, Konstantynów had a yeshivah
with 80 students from both the town and its environs.

During World War I the first Zionist organizations were established
in the city: Maccabee, which also organized sporting events, and Daughters
of Zion, which also operated a library.

The Interwar Years

The interwar years were marked by changes in the occupational structure of the Jewish community of Konstantynów.
The beginnings of these changes were already visible at the end of the
nineteenth and in the early twentieth century. Commerce continued to be
the main profession, but in 1921 there were already 97 Jewish factories
or workshops, employing 186 workers: 51.6% of them were the owners of the
businesses and their relatives, 48.4% were wage earners. Thirty-nine of
these businesses dealt with textile products and employed 93 workers, among
them 64% paid employees, mostly Jewish. These businesses operated as domestic
industries, and sold their products to three to five local Jewish factory
operators (those who did not employ Jews in their factories) or to the
factories in Łódź.

In the two decades between the wars, there was an awakening in the political and cultural life of
the Jews of Konstantynów. Immediately after World War I the Histadrut
Ha-Zionim Ha-Klaliim was established in the city (from a merger of
Maccabee and Daughters of Zion). After a few years branches of Poale
Zion, Hitahdut, and the Revisionists were founded. Youth movements
also developed: Gordonia, established in the 1920's, Betar
(1928), and Brit He-Hayil (1932). The head of Brit He-Hayil
was an army rabbi in the reserves, Rabbi Naftali Meir Rosenbloom. The youth
movements in Konstantynów established a joint group to prepare individuals
for aliyah. There were nearly 100 dues-paying members of the World
Zionist Congress in Konstantynów. In the elections for the Zionist Congress
of 1937, the votes split as follows: General Zionists, 48; Mizrahi, 4;
League for the Working Land of Israel, 28.

The greatest influence in the Jewish community in Konstantynów was Agudat Yisrael, which was
established immediately following World War I, and the organizations affiliated
with it, Agudat Yisrael Workers and Agudat Yisrael Youth.
Representatives of the Agudat Yisrael served as the leaders of the
community. Throughout this period the head of the Jewish community was
a member of Agudat Yisrael. Also, most of the Jewish representatives
(three or four in number) on the city council were members of this party.

During this time period, the rabbi of Konstantynów was the son-in-law of Yaakov Aron Levi, Rabbi
Hayim Radzinski, the last official rabbi of the city. In September 1939,
shortly after the Germans took over the city, he left for Łódź. Between
the wars, the son of Rabbi Menahem David, Rabbi Ephraim Greenbaum, continued
the chain of Admorim, and after him Rabbi Yeshayahu Horowitz, who
died during the Nazi destruction of the Łódź ghetto. Around 1930 the community
began constructing a new synagogue (the old one had been built of wood),
but it was not completed before the beginning of World War II.

In the area of education only Agudat Yisrael was active: in 1920 it established a modern
heder and in 1925 it opened the school Beis Yaakov, in which
about 80 girls studied; they constituted the majority of the Jewish women
students in the city. Among the cultural institutions of Konstantynów,
aside from the Daughters of Zion library, there was a drama club affiliated
with all of the youth organizations. The first issue of the monthly "Der
Tzair" was published under the auspices of Agudat Yisrael Youth;
it marked a first-rate cultural event. In the area of sports, the Maccabee
organization  a continuation of the aforementioned culture and sports
organization from before World War I  was active throughout this period.

In the period of intensified antisemitism in Poland in the 1930's, the German youth group was the most
active among the local anti-Semitic groups. After Hitler rose to power,
an organization of Hitlerjugend was established in Konstantynów
in the framework of the local German gymnastics organization. In 1932 a
procession of Sochaczewer hasidim was stoned during a celebration
dedicating a new Torah scroll in their shtiebl. Even those inside
the shtiebl were stoned. In 1935 members of the Hitlerjugend
shattered windows in Jewish houses and spread the false accusation that
the Jews were planning to destroy the German Protestant church.

The Holocaust

With the outbreak of the war and afterwards  with the German takeover of the city on September
7, 1939, many Jews escaped the city and went primarily to Łódź. Among the
refugees were some Jews who were particularly fearful of the Germans. With
the capture of the city, the local Volksdeutsch began to disseminate
the news that the Nazis had a black list of Jews who supposedly "provided
special assistance" to the Poles, aided in the oppression of Germans before
the war and, most importantly, in sending them to punishment camps of Bereza-Kartuska.
The Volksdeutsch asserted that these Jews would be executed when
they were caught. Among those who were said on the list: Rabbi Meir Rosenbloom,
the four brothers Lautenberg (traveling salesmen), and also Yehudah Leib
Bogayevitch and Moshe Zilberman, who were supposedly associated with the
Polish police. The latter two immediately left Konstantynów. In the first
weeks after the occupation, many refugees returned, but even so the Jewish
community of Konstantynów had declined by several hundred individuals by
the time of its destruction (December 22, 1939).

On the first day of Rosh Hashanah, the Germans shot two Polish doctors and commanded the leader
of the Jewish community in Konstantynów, Baruch Scheiber, to send a group
of Jews to bury those who were killed. The practice of taking Jewish men
from the streets and from their houses to perform forced labor continued
without stop. Once nearly all of the Jews of the locality were brought
to the abandoned factory of the German Shweigart and ordered to clean the
entire premises, because the government was planning to convert the place
to a barracks for the German army. The Germans hit the Jews while working
and taunted them. On their return home they were commanded to sing, "We,
the Jews, wanted the war." The theft of Jewish property continued; the
Germans took merchandise from stores and property from houses. Jews were
deprived at gunpoint of their money and everything of value. Jewish businesses
were transferred to the Germans. In a few cases the Jewish owners were
ordered to operate the factories until the raw materials ran out, and the
products were taken for the German government. With the persecution, the
theft of property, and the disappearance of sources of income, the condition
of the Jews progressively worsened. The last of their property was taken
and sold. They could not buy anything in "Aryan" stores because the Poles
would report them to the Germans and they would be chased out of the line.
A German soldier killed a girl, Golda Gutmanowich, who was standing in
line in a store, after the Poles reported her. Anyone who could obtain
flour baked bread at home. The different types of persecution, including
a curfew from 5:00pm to 8:00am, made the lives of Jews increasingly difficult.

In particular, the Germans taunted Jews with beards. In the first days after the occupation, German
soldiers cut the beard of the elderly Yeruham Pilgrom with a knife, and
seriously injured him. After that, they ordered the Jews to cut their beards.
The butcher Icha Meir Yaakobowitz did not cut his beard. One day a Volksdeutsch
stopped him and, after taunting him, called to another Jew and ordered
him to pull out the hairs of the butcher's beard by hand. This Jew was
well known by the Volksdeutsch and, for that reason, requested that
he not do this and swore on his life that the butcher would cut off his
beard. And so the butcher was forced to carry out the order, in order not
to endanger the life of the Jew who swore on his behalf. After Rosh Hashanah
the Germans desecrated the synagogue and destroyed the Torah scrolls. They
ordered the beadle, Shlomo Leib Kolniadz, to take all of the Torah scrolls
into the courtyard, to douse them in the gasoline which they had brought,
and to set them ablaze. After that they converted the synagogue into a
storehouse. On the first day of Hanukah of that year, the local Germans
continued to torment the Jews and extracted bribes from them. They broke
into Jewish apartments throughout the city in order to find minyanim
at prayer. The Jews who were caught praying were to be killed, but the
Germans were satisfied to take bribes.

The functioning of the community was disrupted because many of the leaders from before the war fled. As
in other cities, the community institutions and social organizations ceased
their operations because of the German terror and the lack of means. Out
of fear of interacting with the Germans, most Jews who remained in the
area refused to participate in the work of the community leadership. Among
the individuals who had the strength to address the needs of the community
and to represent it in these difficult conditions, we know only the name
of the new chairman of the leadership, Baruch Scheiber.

The Jewish community in Konstantynów
did not last even four months of occupation. On the morning of December
22, 1939, the local government ordered Chairman Scheiber to prepare the
Jewish population for expulsion. Scheiber went to all of the Jewish residences
and announced that in the afternoon they were all to appear at town hall
and to bring with them their personal belongings. The Jewish wagon-driver
Koropatov rode through the streets of Konstantynów and loudly proclaimed
this announcement himself. The head of the German police organized the
expulsion. Elderly and weak Jews were permitted to ride on wagons which
were apparently rented by the Judenrat. Under armed guard the Jews left
for Głowno (which was under the general government). On the way some of
the Jews were able to escape after bribing the guards and to flee to Łódź.
The rest were brought to Głowno. From there many Jews escaped to other
places, particularly Łódź and Warszawa.